Which Royal Has the Higher Net Worth: Prince Charles or Prince Philip?

The royal family has no shortage of money. However, some royals are wealthier than others. Prince Charles and Prince Philip have been royals for decades, but one of them is wealthier than the other. Here’s who has more money and why.

Prince Philip and Prince Charles | Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Prince Philip married Queen Elizabeth in 1947

Philip and the queen met when Elizabeth was extremely young — there was a six-year age gap between the two, but they reportedly began exchanging letters when Elizabeth was only 13 years old. The couple didn’t actually get engaged until quite a few years later; their letters began in 1939 but their engagement wasn’t announced until 1947, when Elizabeth was 21. The couple tied the knot in November 1947, and now they’ve been together for more than 70 years. But at the end of the day, Philip is not a royal by blood.

Philip has a net worth of around $30 million — but he’s only married into the family

The biggest difference between Philip and Charles is simple: Philip is a royal by marriage, and Charles is a royal by blood. Philip was born Prince Philip (Mountbatten) of Greece and Denmark, and he came from money and royalty of his own. However, most of his fortune comes from being married to Elizabeth. He receives a portion of the money provide by the British government for the queen’s duties. (Elizabeth is worth an estimated $500 million.) Experts suggest his net worth is around $30 million, which is just an extremely small fraction of the entire royal family’s estimated $88 billion in assets.

Prince Charles is a blood royal who will one day be king

Charles plays a very different role in the royal family than Philip. While Philip is a prominent member of the royal family, he essentially steps aside while Elizabeth rules. Charles, however, will one day be king. When he is given the throne, everything the royal family does will be in his name, rather than Elizabeth’s. He gets a lot of his money from the family’s assets, including the estate known as the Duchy of Cornwall. The Duchy of Cornwall includes about 131,000 acres of land in nearly two dozen countries, and its home to many residential and commercial real estate properties, all of which translate into annual revenue for Charles.

His net worth is estimated at $400 million

Charles’ main source of income is the Duchy of Cornwall, and his net worth is estimated to be about $400 million. Plus, his costs for being a royal (such as tours on behalf of the family) are covered by the Sovereign Grant, which means they’re paid for by the United Kingdom. And it’s certain Charles will inherit money from his parents when they eventually pass away. Those who are blood relatives of the family will always be worth more than those who are not, since they have access to certain things such as real estate that their husbands and wives will never have. Therefore, Charles has a much higher net worth than his father.